03 April 2009

Seattle rises steeply from its bay to a number of hills, with mountains in the distance. The downtown infrastructure mirrors that verticality, with tall elevated highway exits, the overhead monorail, and some impressive skyscrapers.

The office buildings and hotels also seem to have a large number of awnings and overhangs, the better to stand beneath in the rain while waiting for a WALK sign to appear.The IBM Building provides one of those overhangs. Indeed, the whole twenty-story building appears to perch on the spidery legs of its ground-level arcade.

But obviously folks in Seattle didn't think that building looked precarious enough. So thirteen years later the same architectural firm created the forty-story Rainier Tower.

About the Author

J. L. BELL is a writer and reader of fantasy literature for children. His favorite authors include L. Frank Baum, Diana Wynne Jones, and Susan Cooper. He is an Assistant Regional Advisor in the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and was the editor of Oziana, creative magazine of the International Wizard of Oz Club, from 2004 to 2010.

Living in Massachusetts, Bell also writes about the American Revolution at Boston 1775.